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Cuba. 



O house of David, thus saith the Lord; Execute judgment in the morning, 
and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury- 
go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your 
doings. — Jeremiah. 

Behold, the Lord"s hand is not shortened, that it can not save; neither his 
ear heavy, that it can not hear. * * * For your hands are defiled with 
blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue 
hath muttered perverseness. * * * For my sword shall be bathed in 
heaven : behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my 
curse, to judgment.— Isa iah. 



c ■ SPEECH 

HON. JEREMIAH D. BOTKIN, 

OF KANSAS, 

In the House of Representatives, 

Tuesday, April 12, 1S9S. 

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and 
having under consideration the House amendments to the bill (S. 934) to 
authorize the Washington and Glen Echo Railroad Company to obtain a right 
of way and construct tracks into the District of Columbia t>00 feet- 
Mr. BOTKIN said: 

Mr. Chairman: It occurs to rue that the people of this country, 
as well as the members of this committee, are interested to-day- 
more in another question than this question of street railways. 
As I have occupied but little of the time of this committee or of 
the House during this session, I shall be glad to avail myself of 
the kindness of the gentleman from Wisconsin who has the bill 
in charge to occupy the attention of the committee for thirty min- 
utes on the question of Cuba. 

Mr. Chairman, it is impossible at this late day to add anything 
new to the discussion of the questions at issue between this Gov- 
ernment and Spain. I only desire to record briefly my own con- 
victions, and at the same time voice what I believe to be the sen- 
timents of all patriotic Americans. 

In considering the present strained relations between these Gov- 
ernments two distinct problems should be kept in mind, viz. the 
oppression of Cuban patriots and the destruction of the battle 
ship Maine. The civilized world holds the Spanish Government 
responsible for both. Every consideration of humanity requires 
the United States to issue, without an hour's delay, an imperative 
command to the oppressors to quit at once and forever the West- 
ern Hemisphere, and also to demand of Spain a full and speedy 
reparation for the loss of our ship and its lamented crew. 

From the beginning of the period of Spanish atrocities in Cuba 

the American people have been wrought up to a high tension of 

feeling and indignation. During this same period the authorities 

of this Government have been so dilatory as to exhaust the public 

a-:25 1 



4, Co 2 

"^patience, to satisfy the most conservative noncornbatant, as well 
3^ * as the most craven devotee of a cold-blooded commercialism to be 
found in this country or in Europe, and, in the judgment of thou- 
x/ sands, to humiliate this great Republic in the eyes of Christendom. 
«^' Those members of Congress who have criticised the dilatory 

methods of our Government have been applauded by all the 
patriotic people of this country. But they have been contemptu- 
ously styled " jingoes " by the few who know and care more for 
the demands of Wall street and the money kings of Europe than 
for the will of the American people. The latest and most violent 
effusion of this kind appeared on April 1 in the Hartford (Conn.) 
Post, a paper owned and presumably controlled by John Addison 
Porter, private secretary to the President, I quote a few sam- 
ples of this most vicious attack that has been made upon the 
American Congress for a generation, simply to show the venom 
of at least one Spanish sympathizer in this country: 

In the whole history of the Congress of the United States that body has 
never before reached such a depth of degradation as during the present 
week. Under the guise of a desire to help a people struggling for liberty, it 
has kept up a constant agitation for somemonths in favorof intervention by 
the United States in behalf of the Cuban insurgents. Within the last week, 
however, it has thrown off its cloak and shown the true character of its con- 
duet. Its motive in agitating the Cuban question has been, not a love of lib- 
erty, not sympathy with human suffering, but simply bloodtMrstiness i if 
the most savage description. It has been crazy to fight somebody, and Spain 
happened unfortunately to offer a convenient target. 

After a discussion of the Maine disaster, in which Congress is 
condemned without stint for its attitude upon this question, while 
the Spanish Government is held up as a model of fairness and 
good faith, this modern apologist tor tne unspeakable crimes in 
Cuba says: 

It is hard to believe that savages of this sort continue to display then: 
in public in this last end of the nineteenth century of Christian civilization! 

And why this senseless tirade— this screed so appropriately pub- 
lished on All Fools" Day? Simply that Congress, knowing the rec- 
ord of Spanish cruelties in every country over which her flag has 
floated for centuries and witnessing the crowning act of her infa- 
mies— her very intoxication with the blood of hundreds of thou- 
sands of her victims in the Island of Cuba— and moved by the 
dictates of reason, of justice, of humanity, of Christian civiliza- 
tion, demands that this Government shall terminate these horrors 
at once, even though it may require the military power to do it. 
If this constitutes jingoism, then this is a nation of jingoes. If 
this be savagery, we are savages. If to propose assistance to pa- 
triots struggling for independence and freedom from the most 
fiendish system of oppression and slavery of modern times is 
bloodthirstiness, we are bloodthirsty. 

But this defender of Spanish atrocities threatens us with defeat 
at the polls. "We accept the gage of battle. "We are ready to 
meet him and his few friends, the Spanish bondholders, on the 
hustings and at the ballot box. The American people propose that 
Cuba shall be free, and will relegate to eternal oblivion any mem- 
ber of this body who stands in the way of this cause. 

In defense of the Administration's dilatory policy, this writer 
says: 

President McKinley, as is known to those who share his counsels, had al- 
ready laid out his programme, even to the fixing of the final days and dates 
for each stage, before Congress made the first step toward interfering with 
its work. 



75 



<< 

^ 



If that is true, and the President knew he should on Monday, 
April 4, or at the latest on Wednesday, April 6, as was promised 
the country, send his message to Congress declaring for independ- 
ence or intervention, or both, why did he not days and weeks ago 
direct General Lee to remove all Americans from Cuba? This 
would have prevented the disappointment of, not to say the insult 
to, the American people by the postponement of the message last 
week, under the pretext that its promulgation at that time would 
endanger the lives of Lee and his American associates. 

In closing this most un-American editorial, Congress is thus 
classified: 

Benedict Arnold himself was not a viler traitor than these men, and their 
memory and his should go into history side by side, stamped with the eternal 
infamy of having made merchandise of their most sacred public trusts. 

I hurl the charge of treason back into the teeth of the writer, 
whoever he is. The Benedict Arnolds of this period are those who, 
like the author of this insult, would sacrifice national honor, the 
cause of freedom, and humanity itself upon the altar of a heart- 
less commercialism. It is proper to say that the owner of the 
paper disclaims all responsibility for the offensive article. In a 
note published in the Washington Post of April 7 concerning it 
he says: 

So far as the article which has caused criticism is concerned, I did not 
write it nor see it until two days after its publication, at which time I 
promptly sent a telegram to the managing editor of the Post, expressing 
disavowal and regret at the exaggerated tone of the article, and cautioning 
the editor to be more careful in the future. 

And yet his paper of March 30 and of March 31 contained edi- 
torials on the same line of denunciation of Congress, and scarcely 
less bitter than that which he has felt called upon to apologize 
for. Further still, I am credibly informed that Mr. Porter, in a 
personal interview with well-known gentlemen, has admitted that 
while he did not write the offensive editorial, and that it was not 
diplomatically prepared, he did inspire its spirit. 

In an editorial bitterly criticising Congress, Mr. Porter's paper, 
in its issue of March 30, said: 

Our dispatches to-day show the lines on which the negotiations are speed- 
ing. It is asserted from Washington that Spain has consented to the follow- 
ing settlement of the troubles in Cuba: 

1 Spain to recognize the independence of Cuba, 

2. Cuba to pay Spain $200,000,000 . . 

3. An armistice to be declared, during which the Spanish forces are to be 
withdrawn from Havana. ,.,..,,.,■ * ■ ,. ■, a 

4 The reconcentrados to be fed, supplied with clothing, farming tools, and 
seeds by the United States and returned to their farms. 

" This," says the writer, " is a consummation to be proud of. 

On the contrary, it is a policy that will condemn its advocates 
to a just political oblivion in any and every State in this glorious 
Union. But it must be confessed that the people fear this to be 
the policy determined upon by the present Administration and 
enshrouded in secrecy to this hour. 

In this connection the country should know that Congress has 
been flooded for several days with telegrams from men represent- 
ing so-called business interests asking us to support the Adminis- 
tration in its Cuban policy, whatever that is: that these telegrams 
were inspired by messages sent out from Washington; and that 
one of the most notable of these inspiring messages was one sent 
by John Addison Porter. 

This is simply a part of the game being played by and tor the 
bond syndicates of the world— men who are determined that the 
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unspeakable murder and misery in Cuba shall not be interfered 
with by this Government until they have perfected their arrange- 
ments for the perpetual bond slavery of that people. To show 
the death grip which the money power has upon the governments 
of the world, and how they control and use these governments to 
further their own mercenary interests, I quote from a letter in 
the St. Louis Globe-Democrat of March 21, 1898, from its regular 
Washington correspondent: 

"There will be no war," the American representative of the Rothschilds 
said in New York on Friday. He spoke with confidence which knowledge of 
the influences at work inspired. For two weeks the moneyed interests of the 
world have been quietly crowding Spain. They have negatived her appeals 
for loans. They have closed the ear of European courts to her advances tor 
alliances. 

It remains to be seen whether or not this Government, like those 
of Europe, is to continue under the domination of the Rothschilds 
and their agents. 

Mr. Chairman, the American people well know that for about 
three years the most brutal warfare that disgraces the annals of 
time has been waged by Spain against her Cuban subjects. If 
our forefathers were justifiable in resisting oppressive taxation 
without representation, the Cuban patriots are engaged m the 
most holy struggle for freedom the world has ever witnessed. 
For three long years they have contended against great odds. 
Their homes have been destroyed; their old men have been wan- 
tonly murdered; mere boys have been shot down for utterances 
of patriotism; prisoners of war have been butchered; fair young 
women have been ravished by the inhuman Spanish soldiery; 
mothers and children and others equally helpless and innocent 
have been herded together by thousands, without food, clothing, 
or shelter, to die under the slow torture of starvation. And all 
this at our very door and under our eye. 

"We have heard much of the " unspeakable Turk " and his atroci- 
ties in fair Armenia. But I demand that our authorities shall 
consider the "unspeakable Spaniard" and his greater atrocities in 
Cuba, the gem of the southern sea. For three long years these 
revolting barbarities have been practiced by Spain. And yet this 
great Republic, the home of freedom and justice, has made no 
effort to bring them to a conclusion. 

Saul of Tarsus stood by and held the garments of the murderers 
who stoned St. Stephen to death, thereby consenting to the awful 
crime. This Government is the modern Saul of Tarsus. From 
the highest official of this nation, and therefore of the world, has 
come no word of encouragement and assurance to those patriots 
in their unequal struggle for liberty. On the contrary, while ad- 
mitting in message and otherwise the inhumanities of the Spanish 
people and the unparalleled miseries of the Cubans, this same high 
official has on different occasions spoken soft and honeyed words 
to and of the Government of Spain, expressive of high regard and 
confidential relations. 

Mr. Chairman, the sympathy of the American people for the 
Cuban patriots and their horror and indignation toward the Span- 
ish Government for its unutterable cruelties are not of recent 
origin. I desire to point out three facts of history that reflected 
public sentiment upon this question two years ago: 

1. The extended and fervent discussion of Spanish atrocities and 
of Cuban independence by members of both branches of the Fifty- 
fourth Congress. There were no party lines. Sherman, of Ohio, 
and Morgan, of Alabama, and Allen, of Nebraska, were among 



the leaders in the Senate favoring prompt and decisive action on the 
part of this Government. Hitt, of Illinois, and the leading mem- 
bers of the House of all political faiths were no less emphatic for 
the Cuban cause. Proctor, Galuinger, Thurston, and other 
gentlemen whose statements so recently aroused the indignation 
of this country have added no material facts concerning Spanish 
cruelties to those that were given to the country two years ago by 
members of both Houses of Congress. 

These later statements of the case were given, it is true, from 
personal observation, which adds interest and weight. Is it 
claimed that conditions are improved since Blanco superceded 
Butcher Weyler, and that this is a reasonable excuse for recent 
delays on the part of this Government? I reply that the observa- 
tions of Proctor, Gallinger. and Thurston were made under 
Blanco's reign, and not under Weyler's. 

I repeat that the speeches in the two Houses in February and 
March, 1896, that have not since been surpassed in ability and in- 
tensity, reflected the almost universal sentiment of Congress and 
the country at that time. 

2. The resolutions adopted by Congress and the votes by which 
they were adopted reflected the sentiment of the people through 
their representatives. On February 5, 1896, Senator Morgan, of 
Alabama, from the Committee on Foreign Eelations, reported the 
following concurrent resolution: 

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring). That, in 
the opinion of Congress, a condition of public war exists between the Govern- 
ment of Spain and the government proclaimed and for some time maintained 
by force of arms by the people of Cuba; and that the United States of America 
should maintain a strict neutrality between the contending powers, accord- 
ing to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and territory of the 
United States. 

On February 28, 1896, Senator Cameron offered as an addition 
the following amendment: 

Resolved further. That the friendly offices of the United States should be 
offered by the President to the Spanish Government for the recognition of 
the independence of Cuba. 

Thus amended the resolution passed the Senate on the last- 
named date by a vote of 61 yeas, 6 nays, 19 not voting. 

On March 2, 1896, Mr. Hitt, of Illinois, chairman of the House 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following resolution 
as a substitute for the Senate resolution: 

Resolved, That in the opinion of Congress a state of public war exists in 
Cuba, the parties to which are entitled to belligerent rights, and the United 
States should observe a strict neutrality between the belligerents. 

Resolved, That Congress deplores the destruction of life and property 
caused by the war now waging in that island, and believing that the only 
permanent solution of the contest equally in the interest of Spain, the peo- 
ple of Cuba, and other nations would be in the establishment of a govern- 
ment by the choice of the people of Cuba, it is the sense of Congress that the 
Government of the United States should use its good offices and friendly in- 
fluence to that end. 

Resolved, That the United States has not intervened in struggles between 
any European governments and their colonies on this continent; but from 
the very close relations between the people of the United States and those 
of Cuba in consequence of its proximity and the extent of the commerce be- 
tween the two peoples, the present war is entailing such losses upon the peo- 
ple of the United States that Congress is of opinion that the Government of 
the United States should be prepared to protect the legitimate interests of 
our citizens, by intervention if necessary. 

This was adopted by a vote of 262 yeas, 17 nays, 76 not voting. 
The matter went into confertnee, and on April 6, 1886, the House 
agreed to the Senate resolution as adopted by that body on Feb- 
ruary 28. The final vote in the House stands — yeas 247, nays 27, 
3225 



6 

not voting 80. All these votes were free from party bias, and 
represented the overwhelming sentiment of Congress and of the 
country on the Cuban question. 

3. Lastly, I desire to introduce the platform utterances of the 
various political parties in their national conventions of 1S96, as 
reflecting the sentiment of the country at that time. The Repub- 
lican platform says: 

From the hour of achieving their independence the people of the United 
States have regarded with sympathy the struggles of other American peo- 
ples to free themselves from European domination. We watch with deep 
and abiding interest the heroic battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty 
and oppression, and our best hopes go out for the full success of their deter- 
mined contest for liberty. The Government of Spain having lost control of 
Cuba and being unable to protect the property or lives of resident American 
citizens or to comply with the treaty obligations, we believe tbat the Gov- 
ernment of the United States should actively use its influence and good 
offices to restore peace and give independence to the island. 

Mr. BRUCKER. That platform was made to get in on, was it 
not? 

Mr. BOTKIN. Yes; and no party dared go before the country 
at that time with a milder statement of the Cuban question. 

The Democratic platform says: 

The Monroe doctrine as originally declared, and as interpreted by our 
leading Presidents, is a permanent part of the foreign policy of the United 
States, and must at all times be maintained. We extend our sympathy to 
the people of Cuba in their heroic struggle for liberty and independence. 

The Populist platform says: 

We tender to the patriotic people of Cuba our deepest sympathy in their 
heroic struggle for political freedom and independence, and we believe the 
time has come when the United States, the great Republic of the world, 
should recognize that Cuba is, and of right ought to be, a free and inde- 
pendent state. 

Thus the three leading parties of the country, representing 
almost the entire population, are practically a unit in their latest 
official deliverances upon this most burning question just now 
before the American people. And yet two years have dragged 
heavily by since these patriotic utterances were read by a delighted 
public. They have been two years of blood and carnage: two 
years of nameless atrocities practiced upon the innocent and help- 
less portion of the Cuban population; two years of waiting and 
vacillation on the part of our Government; two years of our quiet 
consent to these butcheries. And during these awful years two 
American Presidents have been brought under the grave suspicion 
of the American people as being under the powerful influence of 
bond syndicates, and as being controlled more by commercial con- 
siderations than by the interests of humanity and the cause of 
freedom. 

The country had a right to believe that the new Administration 
would, without unnecessary delay, formulate and prosecute a vig- 
orous American policy upon the Spanish-Cuban question. Ac- 
cordingly, Mr. Morgan, of Alabama, introduced into the Senate, 
on the 1st day of April, 1897, the resolution that had passed both 
Houses by overwhelming majorities— the Senate on February 28, 
1896, and the House on April 6, 1896. The final vote was had 
upon this resolution on May 20, 1897, as follows: Yeas 41, nays 
14, not voting 33. Party lines were again ignored, it being a ques- 
tion of patriotism and not of partyism. 

During the extraordinary session repeated efforts were made by 
the minority side of the House to secure a consideration of this 
resolution, which is confessedly a very mild expression of public 
sentiment. But some strange spell had fallen upon the majority. 

3235 



Strong men who but one short year before had portrayed upon 
this floor in glowing colors the awful crimes committed in Cuba 
by the Spanish armies, and had vehemently advocated Cuban in- 
dependence, now staggered at belligerency, urged moderation, and 
pleaded for more time to ascertain the true state of affairs in Cuba. 
For this purpose the President sent a trusted personal friend as 
his special agent to make an official investigation, promising, in a 
semiofficial Way at least, that should the report of this gentleman 
corroborate the published statements of the horrible conditions in 
Cuba, the Administration would, without unnecessary delay, an- 
nounce and enforce a vigorous policy, such as would meet the ap- 
proval of Congress and the country. 

The people remember that upon Mr. Calhoun's return he re- 
ported conditions even worse than had previously been described. 
Every man on this side of the Chamber and scores on that side 
were eager to vote for armed intervention and for Cuban inde- 
pendence. But some mysterious influence, potent until this hour, 
had fallen upon the Speaker of this House and upon his majority 
that forced them to turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of the 
minority, to the demands of the country, and to the piteous wails 
of starving victims of Spanish cruelty. 

In the meantime the awful tragedy continued. Under Spanish 
authority our Chief Executive was maligned, our flag insulted, 
and American citizens in Cuba were despoiled of liberty and of 
life. And finally, as if to crown all their other infamies, the 
Spanish Government, under the guise of friendship, lured to its 
place of destruction the noble battle ship Maine, which, with 266 
of as brave seamen as ever sailed under the Stars and Stripes, 
went to the bottom of the sea through Spanish treachery and 
diabolism. 

The American people know that our ship and men were de- 
stroyed in Spanish waters; that the explosion was external; that 
the submarine mines and torpedoes belonged to Spain and were 
placed there under Spanish authority; that none but agents of the 
Spanish Government could have known the exactlocation of those 
engines of death, or the combinations by which they could be ex- 
ploded. With these facts before them, I believe the American 
people will repudiate that portion of the President's message re- 
lating to the report of the court of inquiry on the Maine disaster 
in which he says: 

I do not permit myself to doubt that the sense of justice of the Spanish na- 
tion will dictate a course of action suggested by honor and the friendly rela- 
tions of the two governments. 

I also believe they will repudiate the policy of the message de- 
livered yesterday. 

Mr. Chairman, the opinion held by the American peop.e a year 
ago that this Government should at once accord belligerent rights 
to Cuba has grown into an unyielding conviction that had it clone 
so then, thousands of Cubans now dead would be alive: that 
the country would now be on the road to a happy and prosperous 
condition; 'the battle ship Maine, the pride of the nation, with her 
gallant crew, would now be resting peacefully upon the bosom of 
the deep; the war clouds now pregnant with wrathful storm would 
long since have been dispersed and driven from the sky. and the 
honor of our flag would have been preserved in the eyes of our 
own citizens and of all the world. [Applause.] 

The American people will brook no further delay in dealing 
with this question. They demand speedy and adequate reparation 
3225 



nSSEL" «*W655 




8 

for the loss of our battle ship and its crew. They demand abso- 
lute freedom and independence for the Cuban people. They de- 
mand that a people who have poured out rivers of blood for inde- 
pendence and freedom shall neither be required nor permitted to 
pay in addition thereto a single dollar in cash, or in bond either, 
as an indemnity or as an annual tribute to the Spanish Govern- 
ment or to any mercenary bond syndicate on earth. That public 
servant who consents to any other kind of settlement of this ques- 
tion than the unconditional surrender of Cuba to those suffering 
patriots must settle with the American people at the polls. [Ap- 
plause.] 

In conclusion, permit me to say that on general principles I am 
opposed to war; but I am ready and eager to support any measure 
that may be proposed by the Administration looking to the imme- 
diate relief of the Cuban patriots and to a just indemnity for the 
loss of the Maine and her lamented crew. War is a deplorable 
method of settling national disputes, but we deal with a barbar- 
ous nation. I long for the incoming of that era, foretold by the 
old Hebrew prophet three thousand years ago,, when the world's 
swords shall be beaten into plowshares and its spears into pruning 
hooks; when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
shall they learn war any more. 

But the opening day of that glorious period has not yet dawned. 
The Prince of Peace has not yet established His kingdom in all 
human hearts. Nor will He, in my judgment, until this cruel 
nation shall have been blotted off the map. I do not believe a 
government can commit the crimes that Spain has committed in 
Cuba and escape just and awful retribution. If it is God's order 
that retributive justice shall be meted out to her through the in- 
strumentality of this Government, I voice the universal sentiment 
of Kansas and of the country when I say, All hail the task! [Ap- 
plause.] 

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